Keynote
Design Nonfiction
Matt Cottam
Transformations in design practice between the Dotcom Crash and the rise of machine intelligence
Historically, design has transformed and generated new disciplines during times of fast technological change. In the early 2000s the rapid spread of digital technologies challenged designers to respond to a new wave of invisible and intangible materials that promised to revolutionise material culture at every scale. We had to develop new ways of working hands-on with these materials in order to understand their potential. This called for new tools, collaborations and ways of thinking.
We now enter a new landscape of possibilities shaped by advanced robotics, machine intelligence and synthetic biology. How will this shift what it means to be human and how we shape our world? At a critical moment for our planet, and as we set our sights beyond Earth to other celestial bodies, the technological landscape is changing much faster than humans can. Is this simply the next technology revolution, or are we now entering uncharted territory for design?
In 2016 the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum awarded Tellart the National Design Award for Interaction Design—a discipline that did not yet exist when we founded our studio in 2000. This inspired us to reflect on the recent past and future of our practice. We embarked on a road trip, filming interviews with many top design theorists, practitioners and educators we have had the privilege of working with over these years. This project, which we call Design Nonfiction, explores our recent collective experience and the promise of the coming decades for design.
We embarked on this project to chronicle a special moment in design history—to look back, but also ahead. It is dedicated to the new generation of designers who may play a pivotal role in society by giving emerging technologies tangible form and helping people grasp the downstream implications of today’s choices—creating preferable futures for humanity and the planet.
In this talk I will share some highlights from these conversations and some of the hopes, concerns and questions that guide us as we imagine the path ahead.
About the speaker
Matt Cottam
Matt Cottam is Founder & Chief Design Officer of Tellart, an international experience design studio exploring the intersection of storytelling and emerging technologies to create groundbreaking interactive experiences.
Tellart’s projects range from near-future product/service invention and experiential marketing activations for global brands, to “in-world” game events for Hollywood film launches, to large-scale exhibitions for governments and NGOs. Many of their highly immersive, multisensory experiences unpack systemic challenges and propose preferable futures for humanity and the planet.
Tellart is the recipient of the 2016 National Design Award for Interaction Design and their work is
part of the permanent collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Matt is a graduate of
both Rhode Island School of Design and Umeå Institute of Design, where he went on to pioneer their
Physical Computing and Design for Extreme Environments curricula as faculty.
Since 2009 Matt has been teaching at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design.